May 3, 2010

We won’t pretend to be remotely objective about Rites of Spring, last night’s DJ benefit for Haiti organized by our pal Brandon Stosuy and featuring the diverse yet weirdly complementary talents of the New Yorker‘s Alex Ross (whose charming setlist is already up on his blog), Björk, the Dirty Projectors’s Dave Longstreth and Amber Coffman, and Battles’s Tyondai Braxton. Suffice to say it was 100 degrees inside Bushwick’s Above the Auto Parts Store, a complicated “Bieber Detonation” was assayed (as in: the 11/4 bar from the Rite + Bieber’s “Baby” + Lachenmann + Non’s “Fire in the Organism” + Cage’s Williams Mix), and Stosuy’s late-stage, all black metal set (plus Aaliyah!) was greeted like the blessing of a god. Voice photographer Sam Horine was on hand to capture the madness.

Björk and Tyondai, right around when this thing really started getting started.

Longstreth. It was in fact a billion degrees inside this party.

Which didn't stop the crowd from pretty much going bonkers the entire time.

People were genuinely getting this excited about black metal and Stockhausen.

Sorry ladies: Rites mastermind Brandon Stosuy is already married.

Famous local writers T. Cole Rachel and Amrit Singh.

Alex Ross, DJing for the first time ever, except for that other time at Housing Works.

‘The World Trade Center was conceived by vested interests, promoted by pressure groups, brought into being by a handful of powerful men for reasons of monetary gain or personal pressure, and indirectly subsidized by the taxpayer’